Kefrigkebatoe



entran srn'rns Parier orion.

DAVID EVANS, OI PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

REFRIGERATOR.

Specication of Letters Patent No. 3,506, dated March 26, 1844.

To all wiz-0m t may concern: j

Be it known `that I, DAVID EVANS, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful manner of manufacturing' refrigerators `and coolers for the purpose of refrigerating and preserving meat., vegetables, liquids, and other substances usually preserved in such instruments; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

It is well known that refrigerators have been made with linings, and shelves, or coinpartments, of Zinc, and of other metals, in order to prevent the wood work which usually constitutes the exterior casing, from being injured and destroyed by the water resulting from the melting of the ice which they are intended to contain. i They have sometimes, also, been made with an exterior case, as well as with a lining, of metal, a bad conductor of heat having been interposed between the interior and the exterior plates of metal. A patent has likewise been obtained for making the interior` and exterior both of wood, whichwas saturated with, and covered by, a resinous compound. Although these coolers and refrigerators, have answered a very useful purpose, there have been valid objections to them in all their forms. It is very desirable that the lining, as well as the other parts, should be a bad conductor of heat; this condition the metallic lining does not fulfill; and, besides this, it is subject to corrosion from the contact of the saline and acid substances placed therein; and when tin plate is used, it is, in no great length of time, `destroyed by the water itself. The saturation and coating of wood with resinous materials has never been found effective in protecting the wood from the action of water, which always finds pores, and interstices, through which it insinuates itself into its substance, and is retained there by the very means adopted to prevent its entrance.

To obviate the foregoing objections, a part of which exist against all coolers and refrigerators heretofore made, I have devised and executed the plan of lining refrigerators with slate, a substance which is not acted upon by water, or by the acid or saline particles which` ordinarily find their way into them.

I make the box, or case, which is to form the outside of the refrigerator, of wood, in the usual manner. 0n the inside of this box, I affix cleats, or strips, of wood, to which to attach the slate, leaving a proper space for the reception of charcoal in powder, or of other imperfect conductor. To these cleats, or strips, I fasten the slate by means of common wood screws, so as to cover the whole interior with this article; the corners, where the slates meet, and their edges also, I secure by means of well known resinous or other, cement which resists the action of water. `Where the refrigerators are of moderate size, I am able to obtain slate sufficiently large to cover one side of the interior of the box; but two, 0r more, panels. or pieces, of slate may readily be joined together, and secured at theirjoinings, by the same means that are used for securing them at their angles, and edges. I prefer to usethe saine material for shelves, aflixing ledges to sustain such shelves, by passing screws through the slate, or in any other eflicient mode.

I do not claim to have made any improvement in the general construction of the refrigerator, but intend to finish, and arrange, the interior thereof in any of the ordinary forms; but

. Vilhat I do claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The new manufacture of refrigerators, as herein set forth, by the combining of a lining of slate, with a box, or outer case, of wood, substantially in the manner, and for the purpose, above fully made known.

DAVID EVANS.

TVitnesses PETER HAY, R. BERRIMAN. 

